Islamic bioethics has been invaluable to the empowerment of Muslim patients, providing theological guidance and improving medical experiences. In regards to Muslim women, however, the discipline has not been as rewarding in its efforts.

Indeed, Islamic bioethics been faulted for its underdevelopment of a robust moral epistemology. Its central methodology of rigorous application of Islamic texts and resources to ethical analyses and recommendations, often lacks sufficient moral analysis, intellectual engagement, or social and medical context. Women are most affected by this limited examination, which is often influenced by, and gives deference to, entrenched patriarchal norms contributing to a practice that privileges men, marginalizes and excludes women, and which, ultimately, fails to fulfill its ethical goals.

This paper argues that Islamic bioethics must shift from its predominate practice of unreflective scriptural application to a more contemplative and re-interpretative understanding of Islamic text in order to right these healthcare injustices. It proposes an alliance with Islamic feminism as an alternative method of examining the moral foundations of Islamic jurisprudence,

The Islamic feminist movement has gained much momentum in recent years. Islamic feminism grounds its discourse on gender equality in an Islamic framework, arguing that an ethical articulation of Islamic doctrine must proclaim the spiritual, moral, and biological equality of men and women. Islamic feminists, through revisionist readings of Islamic texts, seek to transform understandings of Islamic rulings on women from within in order to create change internally and contribute to more favorable, feminist understandings of Islamic values.

Although intricately related, Islamic bioethics and Islamic feminism have not, as yet, forged a partnership. This paper brings together these two disciplines and situates their collaboration within the context of Saudi Arabian bioethics. As a Muslim majority country where long held patriarchal traditions often influence policy and regulation, including that of medical practice, Saudi bioethics may seem an unlikely place in which to establish an Islamic feminist bioethics. Yet, the country’s instrumental and active Islamic feminist movement has successfully challenged and overturned multiple unfavorable rulings and legislations through the utilization of an Islamic framework, rendering it well-suited for such a project.

The paper presents instances of health disparities suffered by Saudi women, as a result of unreflective and superficial religious interpretations, and demonstrates how an Islamic feminist methodology remedies those injustices. It reiterates that the Islamic moral tradition is rich enough to provide substantial resolutions to ethical dilemmas, so long as appropriate methods of moral inquiry are utilized. An Islamic feminist bioethics possesses these necessary tools; it investigates Islamic rulings, examines their moral underpinnings, and displaces the social and historical context from which they developed. It acknowledges gender as a moral standpoint which guides its ethical analysis. ​Islamic feminist bioethics, characterized by engagement, rather than mere application, of religious text, and by an inclusion of a feminist epistemology is not only good for women, it is good for everyone. Indeed, despite wide Muslim diversity, the success of Islamic feminist bioethics within Saudi medicine may encourage other Muslim societies to undertake similar endeavors.